FEATURE
over the breadth of such a long career, but witnessing the man in action made it easy to visualize how he faced the numerous obstacles throughout the years with the same unwavering courtesy, right up to the mega-stardom which he now enjoys. Our entire exchange felt somewhat surreal. Firstly, LeBron was early to the shoot, and as we were accustomed to accommodating “baller” and/or “rapper” time, his punctuality was not only shocking, but felt uncannily off-schedule. Secondly, it went almost too smoothly: The King came and—after a quiet inquiry—sat on his rubber throne, emanating more self-possession and charisma while lightly swaying upon a giant blue bouncy ball than we could muster on our most dignified days. His responses were polished to a fault and seemingly rehearsed— the statements could easily be written off as simple
clichés—and to be frank, I initially took them as such. But as I trudged on with my 20 minutes of allotted interview time, I developed an admiration—envy, even—in LeBron’s unwavering ability to stay focused and “on” in the midst of possible landmines, which in this case came in the form of rolling cameras and 15 un-vetted interview questions. When we asked LeBron about the struggles of living in the overly-watchful public eye, he did not turn it into a conversation about celebrity. Instead, he saw how his fame provided a leeway to inspire new generations. “I’ll take that side, even if it means I have to deal with the naysayers and all that.” And when we wanted to speak about his array of awards and accomplishments, both on and off the court, he humbly deflected to how they let him have a positive impact on the youth of today as well as
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